EAST CLEVELAND, Ohio — The fulfillment that Historic Forest Hill Park once gave East Cleveland residents like Dawn Jones has sadly gone away.
“You feel unsafe. You feel unsafe, and you just want it to be better,” said Jones.
For Jones, this means maintaining certain sections of the park that have become overgrown with weeds and destroyed with graffiti, which she and Council President Juanita Gowdy feel makes this area an eyesore.
“It’s a tragedy. This park is a tragedy,” said Gowdy.
There is, however, a soft reminder of love just outside the park’s entrance where a sign asks for a Metroparks partnership.
Donte’ Gibbs says this plea comes after a deal fell through between Cleveland Metroparks and the City of East Cleveland.
Determined not to give up, Gibbs and more than 400 petitioners have sent letters to Council President Gowdy and Cleveland Metroparks to ask both parties to return to the negotiating table to give what he says the community deserves.
They also have an online petition as well with more than 1,000 signatures.
“It really shows you when you have folks that are passionate about something that they are able to galvanize folks around their cause and their support,” said Gibbs.
While Gowdy told News 5 she is disappointed an agreement couldn’t be reached, she says the city is still moving forward with its own plan.
“We can run our own park; you know the way we want to run it and now we cut out the middleman,” said Gowdy.
We reached out to Cleveland Metroparks, and CEO Brian Zimmerman shared with us a letter he sent to Council President Gowdy last month.
In it, Zimmerman outlined confusion and miscommunication over the lease and a $2 million check from the city to help pay for the partnership as the reasons they had to step away from the collaboration.
“We are going to take action because we are independent, and we need independent people that’s going to bring our park back alive because we are capable of taking care of our own park,” said Gowdy.
“I don’t think the $2 million ARPA dollars or whatever amount of money is enough to fully restore the park,” said Gibbs.
If council passes this proposal, Gowdy says they’ll use $2 million from federal stimulus money to begin work sometime next year.
